‘Cubs of the caliphate’: ISIL sacrificng child suicide bombers in new tactic

Islamic State of Iraq and Levant’s (ISIL’s) newest tactic has the terror group strapping explosives vests on children, sending them to densely-populated areas or events and remotely detonating the explosives.

Less than 24 hours after a boy aged 12 to 14 was used by ISIL to blow up a wedding party in Turkey, another of the so-called “Cubs of the Caliphate” was caught carrying a suicide vest in Kirkuk, north of Baghdad.

Iraqi security forces remove an explosives vest from a boy in Kirkuk. /Reuters

The boy, said to be around 12-years-old, claims he was kidnapped by ISIL jihadists who strapped on an explosives vest and ordered him to attack a Shia mosque, media reports said. Television footage of the incident shows Iraqi security forces disarming the boy.

The boy, who had earlier fled Mosul, Iraq’s second city which is still under ISIS control, reportedly “burst into tears” as he was detained by police in Kirkuk on Aug. 22. The belt was later detonated safely away from members of the public.

His arrest came less than 24 hours after another child suicide bomber killed at least 51 people and injured 100 more at a wedding party in Turkey. ISIL is said to have sent the boy to the wedding party and then remotely detonated his explosives vest.

ISIL has released videos of the “Cubs of the Caliphate” being put through rigorous training regimes and even being ordered to carry out executions. The terror organization also has an app that teaches the Arabic alphabet to the children using cartoon images of weaponry.